It's been a trying few weeks, but we are long overdue for an update... so here I go.
For those that didn't hear, we lost the home we rented to a fire at the first of this month. We are still looking for a place to rent for Timmy, his sister Jessie and me. Here is a link to the story The Press Banner published if you haven't heard. They did a pretty accurate job. http://www.pressbanner.com/view/full_story/15444547/article-Fire-burns-Boulder-Creek-home-?
Many friends and family have asked what happened with the International Brain Research Foundation and since I'm still not sure, I figure it's only fair to share what I know. It's been about a year since Dr Halper and his team came to evaluate Timmy. The articles we read were promising and we'd hoped they'd be able to help Timmy. We believed that they were willing to treat Timmy and we had high hopes that they would. After a brief telephone summary of Timmy's test results, we were told that a man from the financial dept would contact us regarding the cost. We waited to do any more fundraising at that time, because we wanted to be sure they were going to treat, what the treatment plan would be and the cost. After many frustrating months of not getting those answers, I bypassed Dr Halper and wrote Dr De Fina, telling him that Timmy was back in the news again and that past supporters may be wondering what became of his team helping us. Within days, a woman named Brittany contacted me by email and telephone. We connected and she seemed genuinely concerned and wanted to help. She promised to talk with Dr De Fina and get back to us the following week. Well, this was 3 weeks ago and I feel like we've been forgotten once again. We have invested $10,000 for the evaluation to get started and now I'm wondering if we should write them off as money not so well spent. I know they've helped many, but I'm not sure why Timmy isn't as important to them.
So, now I'll tell you where Timmy is progress-wise now that he's been home for 10 months. He's been receiving occupational and physical therapy at Dominican outpatient neuro rehab. Everyone there is wonderful and with their help, we've seen Timmy progress. Timmy has more use of his left hand and arm and a couple of months ago, we noticed he could kick his left leg while in a sitting position. Today at therapy, he was doing pretty awesome lifting his arm with some weight attached and then we found out he could do something new. He can kick with his RIGHT leg and kicked several times on command. I love when something like this happens, as it gives us hope that he IS getting better and will continue to accomplish more. We ended therapy with him "shooting" hoops into a makeshift "basket". You can tell he has good sensory skills, as he would reach into his lap without looking and find the "ball" pretty much right away without looking. And then he'd shoot. Laughing a bunch of course, as usual,
This past Tues, we decided to venture into a new type of treatment for Timmy. We had a consult with a Cranial Chiropractor. We've only had a consult so far, but he thinks he can help Timmy with at least a couple of things. I've always noticed that the left temporal area of his face didn't look right since the accident. The doctor picked up on that right away and thinks his jaw may be locking and that there is still some compression in that region. He says he can fix that. His treatments will also help to improve the blood flow to Timmy's brain and that can't hurt. And he will also offer nutritional supplements we probably should have been trying all along, like fish oil and specific B vitamins. It's all worth a try and this man has had some pretty wonderful results treating patients with all different kinds of complaints.
I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but we've had a speech pathologist out to evaluate Timmy. This was just a few days before the fire. She is going to set up a vendor to try Timmy with a computer that he can "talk" through by pushing a button as it lights up on the word, picture or phrase that he wants to use. She's ready to come out with the vendor, but we've decided to wait until we get set up in a new home. It'll just be easier that way.
And last but not least, Linda Lovelace from Valley Churches, has submitted our story to the San Jose Mercury for their holiday wish list. We just found out that our family was one of those selected and soon, a reporter will be contacting us to write up our story. So that's exciting and we are looking forward to that.
So thanks to everyone who is still keeping up with Timmy and God bless all of us.
Dawn
Timmy's mom
